An Historian’s Code – from the U.S. army of all places!

A Historian’s Code (1)1. I will footnote (or endnote) all my sources (none of this MLA orsocial science parenthetical business).2. If I do not reference my sources accurately, I will surelyperish in the fires of various real or metaphorical infernal regions andI will completely deserve it. I have been warned.3. I will respect the hard-won historical gains of those historiansin whose steps I walk and will share such knowledge as is mine with allother historians (as they doubtless will cheerfully share it with me).4. I will not be ashamed to say “I do not know” or to change mynarrative of historical events when new sources point to my errors.5. I will never leave a fallen book behind.6. I will acknowledge that history is created by people and not byimpersonal cosmic forces or “isms.” An “ism” by itself never harmed orhelped anyone without human agency.7. I am not a sociologist, political scientist, internationalrelations-ist, or any other such “ist.” I am a historian and deal infacts, not models.8. I know I have a special responsibility to the truth and willseek, as fully as I can, to be thorough, objective, careful, andbalanced in my judgments, relying on primary source documents wheneverpossible.9. Life may be short, but history is forever. I am a servant offorever.(1) Stewart, Richard, Ph.D., “Historians and a Historian’s Code,”ARMY HISTORY, No. 77 (Fall 2010), p. 46.